As Students Standup To Anti-Gay Bullying, The Religious Right Pushes Back

Fri, 04/15/2011 - 10:09am — Brian

People For the American Way’s Michael Keegan writes today in the Huffington Post [1]about right-wing activists who are trying to stop school officials and lawmakers from developing bullying-prevention strategies[2] that address anti-gay harassment and violence, erroneously warning it would lead to “homosexual indoctrination” and “reverse discrimination.” Keegan writes[1]:

Today, students across the country will take a vow of silence to protest anti-gay bullying and harassment in schools. The Day of Silence,[3] an annual event organized by GLSEN (the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network), is meant to draw attention to the "silencing effects" of anti-gay harassment and name-calling in schools and to be a way for students to show their solidarity with students who have been bullied.

But all this silence has made the religious right very uncomfortable.

…

The religious right's campaign against anti-bullying programs, documented in a new report[4] by People For the American Way, has been raging since school districts first started trying to recognize and confront anti-gay bullying. And it has since the beginning focused on the same set of myths.

…

The anti-anti-bullying effort shows the staggering extent of the religious right's campaign to prevent the recognition and acceptance of gay people in all parts of society -- and their desperation as more and more Americans, especially young people, want their gay friends and family members to enjoy equal rights. The Day of Dialogue's marketing is slick and its content carefully focus-grouped, but its true message is clear: as clock ticks on the religious right's anti-gay agenda, the Right's leaders know that intolerance, exclusion, and polarization can start at an early age, but they've "got to be carefully taught."